Filming Locations:

Company:

Did You Know?

Trivia:

John Ford's habit was to always sit beside the camera while it was filming so he could watch the action intently. Unfortunately because of the triple lens on the Cinerama camera, he kept appearing in shot until director of photography Joseph LaShelle hit on the idea of building a rig that allowed Ford to sit above the camera.See more »

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the buffalo hunters arrive on the Union Pacific, the steam locomotive is a wood burning loco, recognized by its large, funnel-shaped smoke stack which contains a spark arrestor. Such locomotives were used by the Central Pacific, which only had access to wood as a fuel before the First Transcontinental Railroad was completed. In contrast, the Union Pacific used coal, which was easily available to them not the least from from the fields in the Rockies, while it had little access to trees for fuel on the plains and in the mountains. Its coal burning locomotives had long straight smoke stacks without spark arrestors.See more »

Quotes:

[first lines] Narrator:[as the camera pans over the Rocky Mountains] This land has a name today, and is marked on maps. But, the names and the marks and the maps all had to be won, won from nature and from primitive man.See more »

Three cheers are much in order for Warner Home Video with their release
of this superb issue on Blue Ray disc of MGM's 1962 blockbuster epic
HOW THE WEST WAS WON! Firstly the nine star rating adjudged the disc is
NOT for the movie - which I think is generally agreed to be something
of a much flawed western extravaganza - but for the quite awesome two
disc presentation this time around on Blue Ray.

Virtually gone are the once irritating panel lines that were left by
the filming with three cameras. Now we have the definitive version of
the movie that is nothing short of stunning! With extremely well
defined sharp as a button imagery, pluperfect colour resolution and
outstanding audio sound (Alfred Newman's brilliant score comes across
with dynamic clarity!) the entire visual experience is certainly
something to behold!

The first disc presents the film in a terrific 2.35 widescreen version
with some excellent extras that includes a documentary giving us the
history of Cinerama and how the public responded to its introduction in
the early fifties. There are also some great clips from the first
Cinerama picture "This Is Cinerama" (1953) presented by explorer and
Cinerama pioneer Lowell Thomas.

But it is disc two that really takes the biscuit! Here we get a "smile
box" version of the complete HOW THE WEST WAS WON. This is the "wrap
around" totally curved format of the film which simulates the cinema
Cinerama viewing experience. And by simply moving your seat closer to
your TV (the greater your TV screen the greater the effect) you can
well imagine watching the movie in your bygone Cinerama theatre. It is
all quite astonishing really and makes a great fun demo. to show off to
your friends!

Amazingly this unique presentation - with all its technical brilliance
- actually makes the movie better than it really is!

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